2018 Winners

Short Film Festival Winner

Spinosaurus by Tessa Hoffe – Interview A young girl cares for her younger brother at home, while she awaits her mother’s return.

2018 Feature Winner

Death of a Fool by Ismael Gomez III & Joe Leone

2018 Fellini Winner

Karma by Kwok Keong

The 2018 Hour Pilot Winner

The Backyard You Know by Ben Philippe

The 2018 Half-Hour Pilot Winner

Infinite Gary by Joey Siara

The 2018 Short Winner

Wa-Wa by Amy Wang

2018 BLUECAT SHORT FILM FESTIVAL FINALISTS

These 10 short films will be screened at the Landmark Theatre in West Los Angeles on June 19th, 2018.

They were selected out of a total of 594 submissions.

The Winner will be announced that evening and will receive a $2500 cash prize.

We are excited to screen your short films in LA!

Congratulations!

Ablution Directed by Omar Al Dakheel

Bad News Directed by Alicia MacDonald

Casey Directed by Shanrica Evans

Cowboy Town Directed by Jennifer Boles

Do No Harm Directed by Marielle Woods

Mite-y Beard Directed by Sarah-Leigh Burger

Special Feature Directed by Steve Sears

Spinosaurus Directed by Tessa Hoffe

The Eleven O’Clock Directed by Derin Seale

Towards the Sun Directed by Monica Santis

2018 FINALISTS

Feature

There are 5 finalists out of a total of 2472 submissions. The Feature Screenplay Winner will receive $10,000 and the four Feature Finalists will receive $1000 each.

A Game of Supers by Khamanna Iskandarova

Death of a Fool by Ismael Gomez III & Joe Leone

Her Weight On Me by Rebecca Shuhan Lou & Sofia Drummond-Moore

Men by Rebecca Dreyfus

Winter Quarters by Nathan Floody

The Fellini Award will be awarded to the Best Feature Screenplay of the 2018 Competition written by a screenwriter residing outside the USA and will receive $1000.

Pilot – Hour

There are 5 finalists out of a total of 586 submissions. The Pilot – Hour Winner will receive $5,000, and the four Pilot – Hour Finalists will receive $500 each.

I Love You, Mr. Freeze by Randy Rex

News Values: On Call by Jacob Paine Krasnow

Odessa by Isaac Siegemund-Broka

The Backyard You Know by Ben Philippe

The Golden Age by Lauren Hussey

Pilot – Half Hour

There are 5 finalists out of a total of 423 submissions. The Pilot – Half Hour Winner will receive $5,000, and the four Pilot – Half Hour Finalists will receive $500 each.

Area 51 by Josh Smooha

Black Cabs by Christopher Maudsley

Conception by Samuel Josephs

Infinite Gary by Joey Siara

Issues by Pogo New

Short

There are 5 finalists out of a total of 762 submissions. The Short Script Winner will receive $5,000 and the four Shorts Finalists will receive $500 each.

A War On Terror by Peter Haig

Absolute Beginner by Shekhar & Shalinder Bassi

Cardboard Box by Bernhard Riedhammer

First Words by Meegan May

Wa-Wa by Amy Wang

2018 Winners

Feature Winner

Cadaver Dog by Judy Soo Hoo & Isaac HoWhen a young autistic Latina rescues a stray cadaver dog, she stumbles upon a 15-year-old cold case that no one wants solved.

Feature Finalists

Spree by Laura Allen Liv, a single-mom and small-time shoplifter, barely makes ends meet with her deviant lifestyle. But when she reconnects with her estranged father she finds she must navigate a new place for herself in the world.

The Townhouse by Baruh Benjamins A young black writer spends a busy day coming to terms with his crumbling relationship with his older white girlfriend as they prepare for an afternoon recital and an evening party in their townhouse. The day comes to a head as demonstrations throughout the city break out into a full-scale riot before escalating into something much more terrifying.

Chico Grande by Jesus Celaya A boy in 1960’s Mexico struggles with what it means to be a hero- all the while obsessing over the TV Western serials of that era.

Westchester by Sachin R. Mehta An Indian jeweler struggling to fulfill his family’s American dream gets caught up in the darkest corners of the 1980s L.A. jewelry district.

Fellini Winner – Best International Screenplay

Waking up after 15 years in a coma as the result of a traffic accident, an unhappily married woman has to re-learn everything with the aid of her husband’s new fiancée, and map out a new path for her life.

Pilot Winner

Four Ivy League students build an illegal drug operation, using it to orchestrate and grow their own social power. But as their power accumulates, they find it harder not to become pawns in the game of their own making.

Al, a down and out reality show host, must make the best of the worst TV show in history: The Orphan, a show about impoverished children from around the world competing to be adopted by a wealthy family in Bel Air.

In a wryly comical near future, where too many baby boomers have saved too little money and amassed too much debt, an unemployed man aspires to the affluent lifestyle of his rich brother while trying to avoid the humiliating fate of his destitute brother who lives in a vast ghetto of boomers known as Squat City.

Dr. Roy Jackson was once an accomplished scientist. Now a 60-year-old homeless man, living in the woods and spending all of his time acquiring junk to help him build a time machine out of a shopping cart. His latest attempt fails and he’s back to the drawing board. An unlikely friendship teaches our obsessive inventor that patience is the true key to time travel.

Feature Winner

Mona. Richy. Robby. And Ray by Oreathia C. Smith A black woman will not allow another black woman to attend her white church.

Feature Finalists

In the Cradle of Granite by Jonathan Holmes When a young girl discovers the corpse of a notorious outlaw, her father must strike a deal with the stranger bringing the body to justice. Miles from civilization in the harsh Oregon frontier, together the two men will discover a bounty is always best earned alone.

Amara, 15 by Hannah Leshaw Amara, 15 (formerly Hijita de Papá) is a coming-of-age feature about a 15-year-old Bronx teenager who is desperate to escape her father’s sexual abuse but who will do anything to leave her two little sisters behind.

Dog by Conall Pendergast A mute drifter and a lonely night clerk must face their deepest fears when confronted by a mysterious man in a patchwork dog mask at a remote, rundown motel.

Death of An Ortolan by Justin Piasecki A disgraced White House chef is discovered decades later preparing meals for prisoners on death row, but he risks a chance at redemption when he befriends an inmate whose guilt appears doubtful.

Short Screenplay Winner

Apart by Elizabeth Capot A woman wakes up to find that she is literally falling apart again.

Short Screenplay Finalists

I Sleep Easy by Tess Carroll A young girl demonstrates her method of appeasing the yellow-eyed beast that haunts her town.

When We Run by Nikki Tran Saigon, 1978. A young girl learns the meaning of sacrifice during an impromptu escape out of Vietnam.

Changelings by Nic Yulo Struggling to keep his dysfunctional family afloat, a teenage boy challenges his immature father by threatening to ruin a family tradition.

Joplin Award Winner (Best International)

Parody by Chad J. Nelson & Alexander Ellerston After a chance encounter with his identical twin’s mistress, a curious psychologist begins to unravel a web of deceit leading to fatal consequences.

Cordelia Award Winner (Best UK)

Title IX by Haydn Fox As a couple’s marriage heads towards a disastrous end, the story reflects on the events that brought them to the present

Roshan Winner (Best of India)

Deepest, Darkest or How Not to Lie by Paras S. Borgohain When a public relations executive discovers a note from her deceased best friend, she must find the trigger for his untimely death – revealing his long-distance relationship with a man, while confronting her own fears of unrequited love.

Winner

Mouth byKimi Howl Lee When a broke Fem-studies major with an unwanted pregnancy assumes an alias and delves into a transactional relationship with an affluent family man, she must masquerade as a suburban trophy wife while finishing her degree––before her dual identity is unveiled.

Finalists

Scriptures and Cigarettes byJoseph O’DriscollAfter a near-death experience, a devout Mormon teenager experiments with the outside world for the first time, risking his relationship with his family and community.

ibyAlex Rollins Berg After a flash flood kills his father, destroys the family farm and leaves him to support his younger brothers, a poor but enterprising teenager sets off to Kuala Lumpur for an iPhone factory job, only to get caught up in the lives of the fabulously wealthy American factory owners.

The Anxieties of Peter Wilhelm byPalmer Holton When Peter Wilhelm’s adulterous daydreams creep too close towards becoming reality, he finds himself being whisked away to a rehab facility for sex addiction, only to become part of a radical new procedure that promises to make him fall in love with his wife again… or drive him insane.

Taking the Toll – The Life and Life of Gilbert Booth byTheodore Schaefer & Patrick Lawler A young toll booth operator falls for a woman at his father’s nursing home but soon discovers that it’s her 99-year-old grandmother who may be more in tune to his eccentric philosophies, including time travel and his imaginary friend.

Cordelia Award Winner

Butter Side UpbyKitty Percy When a hopelessly unlucky smalltime criminal kidnaps a celebrity by mistake, he finds his luck starting to change in unexpected ways.

Joplin Award Winner

George!byLeonardo Noboru de Lima An unhappy family man faces another level of his mundane existence when he wakes up to find himself inhabiting a sitcom version of his life.

Winner

3 Faces of Hunger & Thirst byHF CrumThe true story of the assassination of a revolutionary Mexican presidential candidate unfolds from the original standoff of three gunmen in Tijuana.

Finalists

Bad House byDoug MalletteHoping for a fresh start, a desperate father moves his estranged wife and kids into a mysterious new house, where he soon discovers the horror of the perfect family.

Chicago ShufflebyDennis CappsA mild-mannered Prohibition-era accountant has a chance meeting with the twin brother he never knew he had, a brash Chicago gangster, but when he wakes up trapped in his brother’s identity, he’s forced to find himself as he fights to return to his old life.

HambonebyKateland BrownSet against the illegal dogfighting scene in Los Angeles, a gangbanger sentenced to community service at an animal shelter forms a bond with an abused pit bill scheduled to be euthanized.

The History of MagicbyJosé Luis GonzálezA degenerated traveling Mexican magician and his teenage niece find themselves on the same path of life as he approaches her home in a Texas border town.

Cordelia Award Winner

Face to FacebyJason PittockA cosmetic surgeon’s life starts to unpick at the seams after he accidentally ruins the face of a celebrity client.

Joplin Award Winner

The Longest BirthdaybySavion EinsteinWhen a clinical trial in Israel fails to treat her young son’s cancer, a single mother takes him back home to Los Angeles to celebrate one more time.

Winner

Demain, Je Me TuebyPierre ChanceIn Tokyo, four strangers in life find a bond in death.

Finalists

A Cat’s TalebyKendal Alexander WhitlockYeo, a senior citizen security guard stuck in a perpetual state of mourning his wife and son, meets a neighbor girl and soon finds himself in the middle of a Singaporean underworld, attempting to expose the murderer of the girl’s cat.

Dead DoloresbyMichael YagnowAs a grieving frontier sheriff succumbs to madness, his unseasoned deputy is forced to confront a pile of corpses and a troubled young barber who possesses an unnatural and homicidal obsession with the suitors of his gorgeous twin sister.

Giants of the ValleybyBryce Wolfgang JoinerTheodore Tuttleberg, once the tallest man on earth, forms a bond with a morbidly obese recluse whom he saves from death, but when he seeks to make him famous he almost kills the soul of his one true friend.

We Lost GracebyMichael QuintanaOn the eve of their anniversary, while still coping with the death of their next-door neighbor, a married couple tries to adjust to their daughter’s return home, and the truths they learn along the way.

Cordelia Award Winner

Knock-OutbyChristopher BrownA young boxer must take his fight outside the ring when the guys he trains with discovers the truth about his sexuality.

Joplin Award Winner

Hand Lit MatchbyRachael BernSousa & Mary LustedA teenage tomboy escapes her dead-end Australian country town by joining a visiting sideshow as a wrestler – then sets her sights on the top of the American female league in the 1950′s.

Winner

The Emperor of WyomingbyMichael HamblinThe fractured and dysfunctional family of an Idaho mortician and struggling author falls apart – and comes together – as he and his estranged son grapple with the moral and ethical implications of a bizarre mission from God, delivered by way of a talking corpse. Dark yet whimsical, tragic while infused with awkward hilarity, The Emperor of Wyoming is a heartwarming, fascinating meditation on familial love, bus theft, murder, and the importance of butterflies.

Finalists

MallpocalypsebyAshleigh PowellA down-on-her-luck nail salon employee is happy making the world a better place one pedicure at a time, until a near-death experience awakens within her strange supernatural abilities, and she suddenly becomes part of a giant battle of Good vs. Evil… played out in a shopping mall.

The Hosanna TreebyAnthony EastonA tale of good versus evil set against the desolate backdrop of Dust Bowl era Oklahoma.

The Prime MoverbyAlex EylarA young man witnesses a glitch in time itself and becomes a target of the individuals tasked with protecting the system the world relies on.

Untitled Sarah Palin Sex Doll ProjectbyZeke FarrowWhen the last virgin in high school creates a fake girlfriend on Facebook as part of an elaborate scheme to get a real one, the woman whose pictures he stole shows up and his fiction becomes a reality.

Cordelia Award Winner

Life In A BoxbyNick LuddingtonA young man struggling with the death of his girlfriend unwittingly commits suicide, condemning himself to purgatory. Now in a world where memories are all that is left, his desire for life is renewed and a desperate fight to escape begins.

Joplin Award Winner

Random Acts of ViolencebyGuy McDouallA quarantined pacifist fights to help find a cure for the fits of murderous rage he and other test subjects have become afflicted with.

Electric TownbyTony MullenIn the heart of Tokyo, an old man gets more than he bargained for when he turns to a robotic pet to relieve his grief.

Horse GirlbyJacob Gillman and Matt DieblerAn unpopular and sexually naive 12-year-old engages in a downward spiral of unintentionally perverse get-rich-quick schemes in order to obtain the horse of her dreams.

I Want My Car You Son of a BitchbyWilliam RyanWhen the wealthy boss of nearly retired personal assistant, Toni Fratzki, dies, she’s left to clean up the mess of his troubled teenage son’s illegal affairs and discovers the last chance of belonging to a family she might have.

Talk of MiftonbyCime BruceA young girl who dreams of escaping her suffocatingly small town the day after her eighteenth birthday is injured in an accident that leaves her without the ability to talk or move. Now she must use her new gift on her caregivers if she is to continue to live.

Winner

Below the WaistbyIan SimpsonVanessa, a brilliant, introverted 16-year old, must go to aberrant lengths in order to learn how to ‘feel’ again after a car accident at the hands of her best friend leaves her permanently paralyzed below the waist.

Finalists

A Novel Approach to Suicideby Brien KellyA used bookstore owner searches for answers after noticing eerie correlations between his life and the unusual book he is reading.

Pisserby Eric HueberCramped in a Winnebago with a violent stepfather and a loving yet self-destructive mother, a child struggles to live down his nickname – Pisser.

The Penitent Manby Jason GeorgeAlfred Booth awakes from a nightmare and discovers his heart has been stolen from his body. He embarks on a night-time journey to find it.

The Physicistby Teresa LoAfter moving from San Francisco to Kansas during the 1980s, a Chinese-American family must learn to adapt to small-town life.

Cordelia Award Winner

Tilfordby Steve RuttleyA widow and her young son give refuge to a wounded government witness after discovering he’s testifying against the underworld figure that tore their family apart.

Joplin Award Winner

One Night in Asbury Parkby Maurizio MarmorsteinA local teenage girl with nothing and nowhere to go meets a visiting foreign student in a rockin’, early 60’s dance hall. Their love clashes with the lethal rage of a jealous boyfriend.

Winner

GLADLY MCGEE AND THE DAMN RETARDED F*****byJerry MahoneyTwo actors forge an unlikely friendship while playing offensive stock characters in the 1940s, then experience the ups and downs of Hollywood as it changes over the next 40 years.

Finalists

Death Rattleby Chad BrianForced to kill a drug-sniffing dog, Nat Carter runs afoul of the Drieser brothers, making the dog the least of his problems.

Death and Taxesby Peter K. Hassan & Elisabeth Silverman HassanA Las Vegas IRS agent must hunt down his deadbeat dad, forcing him to descend into a nightmarish underworld of half-man, half-insect creatures and confront the past he tried to forget.

Honky’s Ladderby Lonas TaylorAt the height of Prohibition, an alcoholic federal agent works undercover to bring down Black Legion bootleggers.

Two Rabbitsby Mario de la Garza & Carlos de la GarzaTwo cowhands toil on a remote south Texas ranch when they find a mysterious old man lost in the brush; as campfires crackle and coyotes howl, the old man talks of buried treasure but instead unearths the cowhands’ deepest fears and stages their doom.

2008

Winner

THE PIANO TUNERbyTimo E. PeltonenIn 1943 Germany, where trust has collapsed and fear burns brightly, a piano tuner investigates the mystery of a war widow’s son disappearing from his room.

Finalists

The Language of Leavesby Michael J. ElseyA young boy with a distant father and a grieving mother awakens his creativity with the help of his hip artist aunt, the pass or fail science fair and the mystery of leaves.

El Flacoby Jeff SeymannEL FLACO is a gritty coming of age drama about a Chicano teenagers rebellion against his beloved father who harbors illegal immigrants.

Past Mistakesby Maria MathisWhen a vengeful spirit threatens a young man’s life, he delves into past-life regression to locate a missing treasure to appease it.

The Italian Loverby Suzanne GriffinA passionate Welsh opera singer haunted by his past discovers the deeper purpose of his voice when he becomes the mentor of a mysterious young soprano.

The Yellow Canaryby John-Michael BisterTwo apathetic brothers and their offbeat godfather are reunited with estranged relatives; a comically dysfunctional and beautifully ragtag family is formed.

2007

Winner

The Stonesby Ana Lily AmirpourIn modern-day Tehran, a teenage girl from the working class falls for an upper-class boy. As a forbidden relationship ensues, she finds out the hard way what happens when rules are broken in a merciless society.

Finalists

Every time I go to Staten Island something bad happens…by Irin EversWhen a Latino ex-gang member finds an identity in the Manhattan art school world, his brother’s criminal life proves to be a deadly distraction.

Howard & Minetby Doyle Esch & Daniel Wilson

Kid Showby Chad HolleyAgainst his better judgment, an uptight children’s performer enlists a winsome ne’er-do-well to help spice up his act.

Loved Onesby Vicki SpeegleA young girl chasing adulthood struggles to win the love of her alcoholic mother but finds her quest complicated when her estranged half-sister returns.

2006

Winner

Hyung’s OverturebyYoung KimThe oldest son of a Korean immigrant family leaves Harvard to manage a Bronx convenience store in order for his younger brother to fulfill his destiny as a world-class violinist.

Finalists

Another Youby Gail Mackenzie-SmithIn 1965, a twelve-year-old Nancy Drew aficionado watches the perfect Los Angeles summer unravel when her knight in shining armor, a doting older brother, starts the long spiral into schizophrenia.

Beard’s Creekby Maureen TilyouWhen three children find a murdered woman in the dreamy perils of the swamps of 1950’s Georgia, the daydreams of their latchkey lives fracture horrifyingly into the reality of an actual killer, their older sister’s new beau.

Dianaby Myra Sito VelasquezWithin the frenzied, culturally schizophrenic world of 1970’s Tokyo, a Catholic schoolgirl, wanting fiercely to be a boy, falls for the sadomasochistic sexual charms of a newly arrived student named Diana.

Hushby Eric HumbleHunted for a string of gruesome murders through a Wisconsin blizzard, an ex-con chases a patch of redemption in a wasted life while stranded in a remote farmhouse with strangers and one thing left to do.

Saltby David SteenhoekIn a mythic effort to reclaim his bride and castle, a salt mine worker leads his comrades in life insurance neo-fraud against a diabolical, pregnant stripper.

Stone Grooveby Thomas Jackson PotterSet against the black biker clubs of the 1970’s, two mismatched outlaws flee Detroit for the myth of California, hysterically pursued cross-country by the absurd detritus of Mafioso, psychopathic madams, and toxic law enforcement.

2005

Winner

Gary the Tennis CoachbyAndrew Stock and Rick StempsonAn ethically challenged Rod Laver worshipper moonlighting as a custodian finds himself in charge of the high school tennis team, only to throw down the singularly most unorthodox coaching performance in the history of the game.

Finalists

Donnie’s Brotherby Jim BeggarlyWith his parents buckling under the pressure of an impending tragedy, a high school basketball star hatches a getaway with an odd convenience store clerk named Donnie, to start over with his brother out of state, a brother who the entire town claims is not alive.

Panaceaby Aaron GuzikowskiWhen a tiny statue a boy has found in the woods apparently awakens his comatose father, his mother sets out to heal the world, one person at a time, until she slowly realizes each and every cure has a disturbing cost.

The Break-Inby Ryan David JahnAfter a man kills a burglar in self-defense, he elects to leave the body in his bathtub, setting out on an obsessive hunt to discover the identity of his victim, who happens to be his identical twin.

Holy Hellby Francis ZuccarelloA tail-spinning, sexual triangle between two Catholic priests and the owner of a Hell’s Kitchen speakeasy implodes over Ash Wednesday 1930 against the backdrop of a violent transit worker strike, when suddenly, quite out of nowhere, they bear witness to a miracle.

2004

Winner

The Man in the Rear View MirrorbyAndrew Pagana and Justin ThomasThe story of a man, his wife and mother-in-law in pursuit of a suspected kidnapper on the Eisenhower highways of the 1950’s brilliantly recalls the Hitchcock classic, Rear Window, at 90 miles an hour.

Finalists

Georgieby Kathy GarciaA spoiled, talented, and oh-so-popular Orange County high school girl’s life is turned upside-down when she’s caught kissing a girl.

The Imperfect Cellby Lance HammerA 65-year-old waiter, languishing in a life of lonely self-interment, is befriended by a vibrant, young composer, who brings comfort, rejuvenation, and, ultimately, upheaval to the elder’s tedious life.

In the Lives of Brothersby Kelsey SimonWhen a salt miner assumes care for his mentally-impaired brother, he finds the painful echo of a tragic day from their childhood increasingly debilitating.